Analysis of morphometric and fractal properties of phase-contrast images of native and apoptotically changed MCF-7 cells

The aim of this work is to determine the morphometric and fractal characteristics of native and apoptotic MCF-7 cells based on the analysis of phase-contrast images obtained using laser interference microscopy. MCF-7 cells were cultured under standard conditions. Phase images of cells were obtained using a laser interference microscope MIM-340 at the Perm Federal Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the work, 30 native MCF-7 cells and 30 MCF-7 cells apoptotically changed under the influence of doxorubicin were studied. As a result of processing, the obtained phase images, the cell contour was estimated, which was used to determine the morphometric parameters and the fractal dimension of the cell phase image contour. The maximum and minimum diameters, perimeter and volume of the cell phase image were chosen as the geometric characteristics of the cell phase image. The fractal dimension of the phase image contour was calculated as a scale-invariant indicator characterizing the ruggedness of the cell contour. Comparative analysis of the morphology of native and apoptotic MCF-7 cells made it possible to differentiate the studied cells using the two-sample non-parametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test.